An electrically powered vehicle (such as an electric vehicle (EV) and a hybrid electric vehicle (HEV)) driven in such a manner as to drive a motor by electric power supplied from a storage battery mounted on the vehicle have become widespread with increasing environmental awareness and concerns. In order to deal with infrastructure enhancement for such an electrically powered vehicle, expansion of a charging device is being carried out. A conventional charging connector provided on a charging device is explained below with reference to FIGS. 13 and 14.
As illustrated in FIG. 13, a conventional charging connector 100 includes a connector fit portion 101 fitted into a mating vehicle-side inlet (not illustrated), a connector case 110 housing the connector fit portion 101, a rotation lever 120 that slides the connector fit portion 101 in a fitting direction toward the vehicle-side inlet, and a release lever 130 that locks the rotation lever 120 in a state where the connector fit portion 101 slides in the fitting direction and releases the locked state of the rotation lever 120.
The connector case 110 includes a connector housing portion 111 housing the connector fit portion 101, a handle 112 held by an operator, and a lever attachment portion 113 to which the rotation lever 120 is attached, the lever attachment portion 113 being provided between the connector housing portion 111 and the handle 112.
The connector fit portion 101 housed in the connector housing portion 111 is provided therein with power supply terminals 103 connected to power receiving terminals (not illustrated) provided in the vehicle-side inlet. The connector fit portion 101 is biased by a coil spring 104 toward the lever attachment portion 113 in the connector housing portion 111.
As illustrated in FIG. 14, the lever attachment portion 113 is provided inside thereof with slide grooves 122 supporting a shaft 121 of the rotation lever 120 in a slidable manner in a fit-removal direction. As illustrated in FIG. 13, the shaft 121 of the rotation lever 120 are provided in a slidable manner in the fit removal direction together with a slider portion 107 covering a wire 105 extending outward from a power supply terminal (not illustrated) inside the connector fit portion 101.
The conventional charging connector 100 is fitted into the vehicle-side inlet in such a manner as to insert the connector fit portion 101 into the vehicle-side inlet and then pull the rotation lever 120 while holding the handle 112 (rotating operation), whereby the connector fit portion 101 (the power supply terminals 103) and the slider portion 107 (the wire 105) slide so that the connector fit portion 101 is completely fitted into the vehicle-side inlet.
When the charging connector 100 is removed from the vehicle-side inlet, the release lever 130 is pushed down so that the connector fit portion 101 is removed from the vehicle-side inlet due to biasing force of the coil spring 104.